The Performance Zone

Are you ITIL compliant

Invariably, I have been asked if NetScout or the nGenius Solution is ITIL compliant, or if I know if an System Integrator (SI) has been ITIL certified.  Given the interest in and adoption of ITIL processes by enterprises, as well as, new service offerings guided by ITIL from SIs, these are logical questions. 

However, the ITIL body has become effectively a recommendation organization for best practices processes as opposed to an actual certification body.  Therefore, ITIL “certified” or ITIL “compliant” software or hardware seals of approval do not actually exist. Rather, ITIL is aimed at directing actions and procedures for a specific enterprise IT’s efficient operation.  How enterprises chose to implement those procedures may be unique to their own specific business.

Kinda nice to have some leeway in the matter, if you ask me.

Rising interest in ITIL

As I have visited companies recently, some have mentioned changes in their processes that may be introduced in 2006 to facilitate and improve communications across all of their IT teams - network engineers, voice specialists, and application developers.  Deciding what processes to put in place can be a a bit of a challenge. There are a couple of directions IT organizations can go to establish the necessary processes. 

Processes such as those outlined in the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) to direct planning, troubleshooting, network optimization, and application delivery activities seem to be mentioned most often by the customers I am talking with.  Some companies are considering contracting with large ITIL oriented Systems Integrators (SI's) to provide more of their company's IT services while others are planning to educate themselves on some of the recommended ITIL processes and implement selected ones internally.

Whichever direction you are thinking about, the ITIL web site offers the most complete description of all the Libraries http://www.itil-itsm-world.com/ to get a jump start on that education process.  NetScout offers a free white paper on ITIL processes. In addition, I will continue to provide information on how network and application performance management can play a part in this new world of ITIL processes in future posts.